208 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



not be restrained but drift aimlessly before the 

 blast. Then the herders forsaking their tents 

 and the comfort and shelter to be found therein 

 follow the sheep, striving to keep them together 

 and if possible to lead them at last to a safe 

 shelter, perhaps among pines or behind shelter- 

 ing cliffs and hills. 



Oftentimes these storms endure for several 

 days and the shepherd may find no refuge nor 

 help until^t last he is overcome with weariness 

 and cold and lies down iu the snow for rest. 

 Here he is found, sometimes j^et alive and more 

 often frozen to death. There is hardly a winter 

 that there are not a number of herders lost in 

 storms and there have been single storms that 

 counted their dead by scores. The writer knows 

 one old man, a fine herder he is, who has been 

 found buried in a snow drift beside his flock, 

 miles from the camp, so frozen that he lost all 

 the fingers of both hands, only one thumb re- 

 maining. This old man, after the terrible ex- 

 perience, calmly resumed his occupation, and 

 even managed to live alone and make camp in 

 his crippled condition. 



Men of foreign birth often make excellent 

 herders for the range country. Germans excel, 

 Portuguese are reputed good herders, Andalus- 

 ians have a reputation in parts of California, a 

 Chinaman has been known to become a skilled 

 shepherd and Mexicans have their virtues, 

 among them a dog-like fidelity, though they are 

 not reputed so daring and resolute in time of 

 stress as men of Northern climes. And now and 

 then a lad of American stock excels. Scots, are 



